links

iPads are apparently the next big thing in education. Which raises the question of how to secure them. Handled quite brilliantly, there.

It appears that ever since the passing of Jobs, people are constantly on the lookout for the “next Steve Jobs”. Latest up, Steve Sinofsky of Micro$oft. While he’s not about the design, he is ruthless in efficiency, secrecy, and having his way. This seems to be the latest CEO gambit (similar things have been said about Jeff Bezos of Amazon). The one thing they all seem to want to copy is Jobs’ dress sense. Dunno why. Sorta goes against the grain of you “standing out from the current/past crop”.. something else that Jobs was famous for.

Edits Quarterly has to be one of the most beautiful online experiences I’ve seen in a long time. Simply stunning, and open to any device (no Flash!)

Brilliantly done music video, with the background as follows (via GaS):

The new music video from OK Go, made in partnership with Chevrolet. OK Go set up over 1000 instruments over two miles of desert outside Los Angeles. A Chevy Sonic was outfitted with retractable pneumatic arms designed to play the instruments, and the band recorded this version of Needing/Getting, singing as they played the instrument array with the car. The video took 4 months of preparation and 4 days of shooting and recording.

You can’t make this shit up: Government buildings, flyovers, roadside railings, and taxis should be painted a shade of light blue, a minister in the ruling Trinamul Congress government said.. Our leader [chief minister of West Bengal] Mamata Banerjee has decided that the theme colour of the city will be sky blue because the motto of the new government is ‘the sky is the limit’.. “Blue is a beautiful colour and is also soothing for the eyes,” Calcutta mayor Sobhan Chatterjee said.
My favorite part is that this has happened before — Aurangabad was painted pink back in 2006 “to uplift the city’s spirits”. Clearly a working example.

A relatively well-argued piece on atheism, and the journey to realizing exactly what it means (and how you can reach that mindset) set me thinking. The article itself is based on the author’s Christian roots, though I can see parallels with my outlook. I’ve thought out loud about my journey from agnostic to.. something else, but the thing is that the concepts of Hinduism are not as radical as Christianity in some ways. I need to devote more thought to the subject, it appears.

The underlying idea behind SonicNotify is really cool. Think an audible NFC style technology that detects a particular sonic frequency and shows you content according. Magical to a user when it happens, and very monetizable (so something that can actually survive!).

Ah, humanity.. it is awesome when you take satire seriously. Ofc, I would be more sarcastic, but I once took an article from the Huffington Post’s satire column seriously. In my defense, it was a badly named column. In my offense, it just goes to prove I’m only slightly better than the examples of humanity on above link. Hopefully.

Windows 8 is shaping up to be more and more game-changing for M$. The latest plethora of information about Windows-on-ARM shows that it is essentially the iPad-style Metro-only tablet version of Win8 that some wanted. With Office. Without the Desktop. Single code base across all versions of Windows (PC, ARM, server). Single interface across all M$ products (Phone, XBox, PC, Tablet). This is simply insane, an advancement straight out of left-field that M$ has been working towards for the last 3 years.. oh-so-quietly.

Book previews are so awesome. Y’know, except when all they are basically the extremely useful title and index pages of a book.. and not much else.

The story of Gerald Blanchard reads like something out of a movie: parachute in to steal priceless jewels (check), ridiculously simple-yet-awesome escapes from the law (check), carefully hacking his way into bank after bank after bank (check), double-crossing, world mafia (check and check). Well worth the read.

I think I will have at least one LEGO link in every post. There appears to be no dearth of material, fo’ sure. Today’s awesome: Back To The Future 2015 painstakingly recreated (via Gizmodo). Down to replicating the Nike shoe, Mr Fusion, and EVERY character in the town square chase sequence (circa 2015).

Ridic’ Superbowl ads. As random as the VW follow-up ad is, Jerry Seinfeld in an ad is, as expected, priceless.

True inspiration makes you revere the original even more. Case in point, this shot-by-shot comparison of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” vs. scenes from 30 different adventure films made between 1919-1973. Gotta love Spielberg/Lucas.

My LEGO obsession is not unhealthy, there are LEGO nerds who have their own site dedicated to nothing but announcements from that world. Before you ask, yes.. there will be a LOTR LEGO minifigure set (via Gizmodo). And even more pictures of these figures.

What gives a Oreo its Oreoness? There’s much, much more to it than Twist, Lick, Dunk, lessons which had to be learned for it to become the best-selling cookie in China (via kottke.org)

While we’re talking about LEGO, here’s how you automatically sort the many pieces it has. Yes, the sorter is made with LEGO as well:

And an awesome Dr. Who tribute.. summarizing all 784 episodes in one 10 minute ‘shot’ (via the Verge):

Windows 8 is starting to look really good. M$ has really got their Metro shit together, I hope. Imagine, a touch-friendly Windows tablet, which you might even be able to work on! via Gizmodo| First Touch: This is Windows 8

This hits the nail on the head so perfectly via Shawn Blanc| It’s Just Stuff. The more I read, the more I assimilate.. the more irritated I get about the way treat technology today. There is always more.

The only reason for this link is because it uses Bayes/kNN for something so ridiculous. And I know exactly what/how those work! (via kottke.org)

I remember VCDs were the reason India actually moved to affordable home video.. and the death of the cablewallah’s Friday Night Pirated Releases. A deeper look into their life via David Bordwell| Pandora’s Digital Box

Just to follow up on the Sibal war on protecting the Indian populace from obscenity on the Internet, the stand-out statistic from this article includes the fact that only 3 out of 350 requests made by the Indian Govt to remove content from Google is due to pornographic content. Pretty much all the remaining requests are to avoid defamation — of Govt or public figures. Srsly.